Usage Rules

Usage rules specify when a payment method or a payment process profile can be used on a document payable.

You can specify:

  • Usage rules for payment methods

  • Usage rules for payment process profiles

Usage Rules for Payment Methods

A payment method is the medium by which the first-party payer, or deploying company, pays a supplier invoice, customer refund, or employee expense report.

By default, payment methods are available on all transactions. By creating usage rules, you can limit the use of a payment method based on the following transaction conditions:

  • Source product

  • Business unit

  • First-Party legal entity

  • Transaction type

  • Whether domestic or foreign currency or payee location

Not all source products that are integrated with Oracle Fusion Payments have usage rule options. Some products, such as Oracle Fusion Fixed Assets, create transactions that are imported into Oracle Fusion Payables, and are included in Payables usage rules. Other products, such as Oracle Fusion Expenses, have fixed usage rules on supported payment methods.

The payment method that the source product user sees depends on the usage rules specified on the Create Payment Method page, Usage Rules tab. For example, suppose you have a payment method that is specific to one country. You could create a usage rule so that the payment method is available for only the one business unit associated with that country. A user entering an invoice for any other business unit wouldn't see that payment method available to select. Usage rules, combined with payment method defaulting rules and user-definable validations, make straight-though processing possible.

Usage Rules for Payment Process Profiles

A payment process profile specifies the details of the disbursement payment process, such as specifications for document payable grouping, payment grouping, and payment file formatting.

By default, payment process profiles are available on all transactions. By creating usage rules, you can limit the use of a payment process profile based on the following transaction conditions:

  • Payment method

  • Business unit

  • Disbursement bank account

  • Currency

The profile that is applied to a document payable depends on the usage rules specified on the Create Payment Process Profile page, Usage Rules tab. When you submit a payment process request, Payments compares the attributes of each transaction to the profile provided on the Submit Payment Process Request page. Any transaction fails validation whose attributes are in conflict with the profile's usage rules. If no profile is selected, Payments compares each transaction's attributes to all existing profiles to find one with usage rules that match the transaction attributes. If a match doesn't occur, user intervention is required to determine the appropriate payment process profile to use.

To enable straight-through processing, it's important that usage rules are no broader than necessary. For example, having two profiles in which both sets of usage rules could apply to the same document payable leads to user intervention. However, if one profile is specific to business unit X and the other to business unit Y, then there is no ambiguity. The application can uniquely identify which payment process profile to apply to the document payable without user intervention.